A Fair to Remember

“Ewww…oh, God.”

When he’d tried to avoid the dog, he’d swung his wet jacket against the front of the woman. Now she looked like she might get sick herself.

“Sorry,” he muttered, though it served her right.

“Not your fault.” She tried to hold her top away from her skin with a thumb and forefinger. “Oh, man, I can’t believe this.” She put her other hand on her hip and glared at the dog. “Sugar, bad dog.”

The dog barked and rose from her sitting position with her tail wagging.

The absurdity of the entire situation finally struck him, and Wes burst out laughing. The woman looked up, her eyes wide again, probably wondering if he’d lost his mind. She blinked at him a few times and that zing stung again, working its way along his nerves and making him very aware of her striking beauty now that he’d gotten a close up look. Her eyes were a very pretty velvet brown, framed by long black lashes.

Quiet life, not biker babes, he reminded himself.

His humor subsided to a chuckle when he glanced down at his stained shirt and pants. “I don’t have any other clothes.”

“Me neither, but I’m on my way home. I’m sorry you’ll have to make a separate trip home and back.”

“I flew into Green Bay this afternoon, and the airline lost my luggage,” Wes clarified. “I literally don’t have any other clothes.”

“Ooh… Well, that explains it.” Her head tilted, the beginning of a smile lifting the corners of her mouth. “Even for an uptight lawyer, the suit was a bit much for the fair.”

Wes frowned. “I’m an investment broker, not a lawyer.”

“Sorry, lawyer was the first thing I thought of, and it kinda stuck.”

“That’s a little narrow-minded, don’t you think? I expected more from a small town—even from you.”

Her smile vanished. “What does that mean?”

Wes flicked his gaze to the barbed wire tattoo on her arm, and then he leaned closer while meeting her narrowed gaze. “If you dress the part, you usually are the part…Sugar.”

The dog Wes momentarily forgot leapt at his face. He received a big pink tongue across his mouth and stumbled back a step. Ugh. Wes spit to the side before wiping his mouth on his grass-stained sleeve. He frowned at the two of them, wondering who in the world named a dog Sugar.

“Keep a shorter leash on that thing, would you?”

The woman pulled the dog closer to her and commanded the animal to sit, which, surprisingly, she did. “Be nice to her, she can’t help that she fell in love with you.”

Wes stared for a disbelieving second. “What?” He looked at the dog. Her sorrowful brown eyes gazed up at him, her ears flat against her head. She blinked once, her tail wagging incessantly, her whole body wriggling. He looked back at the woman. She blinked, too, but her body remained still.

“She gets infatuated and follows people,” Miss Crazy said. Wes glanced down at her left hand. Miss Crazy indeed.

He backed up, bent over to scoop up his jacket, and then backed up some more. “Yeah, well, I’d say it’s been fun, but…”

She sighed and avoided his gaze. “I really am sorry.” She looked as if she’d say more, but then she just tugged on the leash. “Come on, Sugar, let’s go.”

Wes watched her drag the dog away, his heart beating a bit irregular, and feeling oddly disappointed. That was crazy. He wanted them to leave. Maybe he could get another hamburger. He looked down at the front of his shirt and rolled his eyes before his gaze focused on the crazy woman’s retreating back. The Great Dane moped behind her, turning its head to look at him with its tongue lolling out the side of its mouth.

“Is that why you were following me?” Wes called out.

The woman paused, then turned, a surprising blush staining her cheeks. “You saw us?”

He snorted and pointed, palm up, indicating the animal at her side the size of a small horse. The woman laughed, a natural, unforced sound that sent a curl of warmth through his stomach.

“Sugar spotted you about an hour ago,” she admitted, stroking the top of the dog’s head.

“Love at first sight?” He cringed at the stupid joke, but it was the first thing that’d popped into his head.

“For Sugar it is.”